Richmond, VA: No Sanctuary for Racists

Richmond anti-racists shut down a rally on March 4th against sanctuary cities, outnumbering the rally’s attendance 2:1 and ending the rally early by flooding the stage with raucous solidarity.

Corey Stewart, who considers himself “Trump before Trump was Trump,” was late to jump onto the informal day of action held by the right on March 4th and instead held his own rally to “End Sanctuary Cities.” A part of his campaign for governor, which primarily focuses on playing the fears of white residents in Prince William County, he recently appeared in Charlottesville where he spoke to a group of Confederate fetishists outraged at the city’s decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. (It’s a harder fought battle, but the statues on Monument Avenue are likely soon to follow)

The Richmond rally managed to turn out a crowd of about fifty Trumpkins in front of the Bell Tower of the VA State Capitol. In attendance were a handful of twenty-somethings, some Fox viewers from outside of the city, and a number of the “Army of Northern Virginia Mechanized Cavalry” (members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the VA Flaggers group). Also present was local neo-Nazi and Traditionalist Worker’s Party stooge, Derrick Davis.

While organizers of the racist rally rushed to start ten minutes behind schedule, two groups of black clad anti-racists and anti-fascists converged, and responded to initial jeers of “All Lives Matter!” with a rolling roar of “BLACK LIVES MATTER!”

As the counter-demonstrators took position just yards from the stage, Capitol police and RPD mounted officers attempted to form a line, to prevent the confrontations that had already begun to brew. Many in Stewart’s audience could not hold back from agitating the increasingly rowdy protestors. While a number of the men armed with long rifles and sidearms seemed to practice some discipline, others threw themselves quickly into the fray. It is easy to feel brave when the police and armed Patriots are on your side.

Nevertheless, every attempt at agitation was met with firm push back. No fear or trepidation was shown for the display of arms. One of the first shoving matches ended with a white nationalist’s livestream getting literally stomped out. Another Trumpist who seemed hell bent on getting into a fight got spit on and his Pepe mask ripped.

This is dope.
Charlottesville agitator @TheMadDimension came down for the day and got his live feed stomped out#antifa #smashracism pic.twitter.com/oNyDJnxL71

— AntifaSevenHills ? (@ash_antifa) March 4, 2017

Many people brought their own noise makers and drums, and the resulting wall of noise successfully drowned out the right wing rally, cutting a three-hour rally down to a brutally awkward 45 minutes. Local Nazis and Neo-Confederates were often called out by name, and ridiculed with chants just for them. At a point, this seemed to even unnerve the police, as if for a moment they faced some moral dilemma.

Meanwhile, the continued chanting and drumming, with the tumult of various confrontations, made Corey Stewart’s PA inaudible. Only three speakers took the stage before Stewart, who was barely able to get through his own speech, constantly distracted by an unrelenting band of “Fuck you Corey!” By 2pm, the rally coordinators were hustling to break down the stage. Most of their meager crowd quickly departed, and when success was clear, the crowd of anti-racists left together in celebration.

A loose coalition of immigrants rights activists, anarchists, antifascists, communists, and their friends, along with a crew of anti-authoritarians from a nearby college town, were able to pull together around 100 people to shut down this event in less than a week. Many showed up with their own banners, in black, and masked up or with their faces obscured through other means. Most everyone seemed to be rolling with a crew of their own, many of which were 4 or more people. Crews of friends coming together with a plan, even if that plan is just to keep each other safe and move as a unit, increases the ability of a crowd to move together and make decisions.

This is an increasingly common scenario in Richmond, showing signs of increased cohesion between different groups as well as increased militancy. There was almost no language policing (or any other peace policing for that matter), aside from one liberal snitch who tried to help the racist who had his phone stomped. She was quickly made to feel unwelcome. This is a promising development, as radicals here have been lambasted by progressive counterparts for less confrontational displays of resistance, and too much room has been made to soothe liberal unease.

Richmond’s opposition to nationalist hate is growing in strength and solidarity. Let’s keep building together.

– some southern anarchists

---